PETALING JAYA: Men’s singles shuttler Jacky Kok enjoyed a good start in the Thailand Masters when he won both his qualifying round matches against homesters but it was the end of the road for Eogene Ewe.
Jacky, who was dropped by the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) last year, had to dig deep to beat Puritat Arree 17-11, 21-11, 22-20 in 55 minutes in the first qualifying round at the Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok yesterday.
The 22-year-old then had enough in his tank to dispatch off Korakrit Laotrakul 21-16, 21-17 in 42 minutes in the second qualifying round.
Jacky, who is currently ranked No. 101 in the world, has a tough task next against India’s world No. 46 Ayush Shetty.
Eogene, who is one rung lower than Jacky in the rankings, could not follow the latter into the tournament proper after going down 11-21, 11-21 to Indonesia’s world No. 159 Mohd Zaki Ubaidillah in the second qualifying round.
Earlier, the 19-year-old did well to overcome South Korea’s Cho Geon-yeop 22-20, 15-21, 21-17 in 68 minutes but ran out of steam against the Indonesian.
Meanwhile, Justin Hoh, Cheam June Wei and Aidil Sholeh Ali Sadikin will open their respective campaigns in the first round today.
Justin has a tricky task against Zaki while June Wei and Aidil will play India’s S. Sankar Muthusamy and Mithun Manjunath respectively.
In the women’s singles, national No. 2 K. Letshanaa and independent player S. Kisona.
Letshanaa will face Taiwan’s Tung Ciou-tong while India’s Tanya Hemanth stands in Kisona’s way.
In the men’s doubles, independent pair Low Hang Yee-Ng Eng Cheong suffered an early exit after going down 17-21, 19-21 to home pair Chaloempon Charoenkitamorn-Worrapol Thongsanga in the first round.